By now you’ll probably all be aware of the Hunger Games juggernaut that is among us. In fairness, considering the word of mouth, the in-built fanbase and the promotional job that had been done, this was always going to be a bit of a phenom – although you could have made the same argument for John Carter earlier this year.

The US weekend figure was revised down slightly to $152.5 million but that still represented a record weekend, well above most estimates. Here it opened with a bumper £5 million take at the box office to push last week’s #1, 21 Jump Street, down to number 2. Like I said in Monday’s post, look for The Hunger Games to run and run. We’ll see how much of a dent Wrath of the Titans and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientistscan make in its armour this week.

Another Sci-fi movie will be released later in the year that will also bring us a decidedly dystopian view of the future and also has an in-built fanbase. I’m sure the makers of Dredd will be looking to The Hunger Games for a few pointers to take their version as far away as possible from Sly Stallone’s hokey Judge Dredd in 1995. Judging (!) by the early promo stills coming from the set of the new Judge Dredd, Karl Urban, all the signs are looking good! See where Dredd came in our Most Anticipated survey last week.

Still defying gravity in 3rd spot SIX WEEKS after release is the gift that keeps on giving, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. This is really turning out to be a ‘Calendar Girls‘ or ‘Billy Elliot‘ type sleeper hit and people cannot get enough. The repeat business most be phenomenal and it’s an indication that perhaps the slightly older demographic are well prepared to support quality movies geared more towards them, and Best is exactly that! It hasn’t even been released in the US yet……

The somewhat experimental Act of Valor opened at #8, which is actually a pretty good showing, but the disappointment of the weekend was that the excellent Wild Bill found very little support among cinema going audiences, despite being one of the best British movies in years. It was perhaps a shame that Dexter Fletcher’s indie project had to step into the ring with such a huge heavyweight contender and not even make the top 10 but, hopefully, it will go on to find its audience moving forward.